"I will always thank Mitch for doing this. That could have easily just gone south, instead of what happened," Marquez said.

Gilbert deposited the money in Marquez's bank account just two days before Christmas.

"I think he was pretty much in shock. I don't know if he believed it," Gilbert said.

Even though Gilbert's real estate business is slow, he says returning the money was the only option.

"I would have loved to have $10,000. You think about all the bills you can pay. But it didn't belong to me," Gilbert said. "It felt so good to be able to get it back to the guy. I felt like I was floating on air. I felt like a million bucks."